Nursing shortage means we need to grow our own: Training scheme prepares NHS care staff for the wards

NHS boards are growing their own nurses in a bid to solve staff shortages.

Care workers are being encouraged to apply for an Open University course which allows them to train to become nurses while continuing to work full-time in the health service.

Training takes four years, and there is a particular drive to expand the university’s nursing programme in rural areas where health boards struggle to attract and retain workers.

Audit Scotland found last year that there was a trend towards an increasingly ageing workforce with 38% of NHS staff aged over 50. Nursing and midwifery had particularly high rates of older staff.

Chris Rodden, quality improvement lead at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said every graduate had remained in the area after completing their studies.

She added: “This is perfect for us to support staff who are already very much involved in hands-on patient care who wish to progress to becoming nurses.

“It gives an opportunity to staff who would not have had this available to them when they left school for whatever reason.

“I think some of our nursing assistants look at nurses in their cornflower blue uniforms and think: ‘I could do that.’

“The Open University course allows them to do it.

“This is a really good route that we can use to grow our own nurses.

“It allows people to maintain their terms and conditions to study.

“There is a balancing act – they have got to be very committed and work really hard.

“It is lovely to see that real energy and passion which graduates have to take things to the next level.”

I was stuck in a rut. This changed my life

Michaela Olver wanted to be a nurse her whole life – even putting on the uniform to dress up as a child.

Although she didn’t go straight into her dream career, the opportunity came along later in life.

Michaela gained a degree through the Open University while employed as a support worker at Borders  General Hospital in Melrose and has now taken up a post on her old ward as a nurse. She said: “The opportunity was life-changing. I was stuck in a rut before I started.

“I wanted to do my training but there was no way I could afford to leave my job and carry on enjoying my independence.

“It was a lot of hard work and there were so many occasions when I felt overwhelmed, but the very fact that it was undeniably a ‘too good to be true’ opportunity kept me focused.”

I could stay in my job until I was trained. It worked

Karen Beck set her sights on becoming a nurse in her teens but a first crack at university aged 17 didn’t work out for her.

She became a clinical support worker and went back to study with the support of her employers at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, graduating last October. Karen is now a staff nurse at Ayr Hospital, having previously supported junior doctors and nurses at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock.

“The sponsored programme appealed to me as I could remain in my job while I trained, which I knew would be beneficial to my learning,” explained Karen, who gained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Adult Nursing degree through the Open University.

“I knew the advanced nurse practitioners would be a good support.

“And there was the financial side of it as well – I knew I could stay in my job and still have a monthly income, rather than to have to go to university and live off a bursary.

“Rather than going back to the university I was at before, where I kind of failed the first time, I thought I would like to try it a different way.”